Open Access Academic Publications

There's an important article in PLoS Biology that has 
implications beyond scientific academic and research 
publishing.  It can be found at:

http://www.plosbiology.org/archive/1545-
7885/2/4/pdf/10.1371_journal.pbio.0020105-L.pdf

or

http://tinyurl.com/25x3f

I think that it has application to the practice of law and 
law reviews.  Some law reviews make money (at least 
Harvard's does).  Most law reviews have at least part of 
their operating costs defrayed by subscription income.

However, my sense of it is that we would all be better 
served if there was a system in place for the wide "free" 
dissemination of law reviews via the Internet.

Perhaps I'm showing my age, but, when I began 
practicing, the Maryland State Bar Association paid a 
stipend to the University of Maryland and University of 
Baltimore law schools and, in exchange, every member 
of the MSBA got a subscription to the two law reviews.  
Due to rising costs (primarily postal rates and printing 
costs) that program was suspended.  

With the Internet and web-based publishing dramatically 
reducing costs of production and distribution, the time 
would seem ripe to re-institute that program.  Moreover, 
it would seem to me that every law school would want to 
institute some similar program for the same reason that 
it wants to have a law review in the first place--to further 
academic efforts generally and among its student body 
and faulty in specific.  (Yes, I know that every ABA-
accredited law school must publish a law review, but the 
raison d'etre behind the "requirement" is the same as 
that compelling law schools to have law reviews in the 
first instance--advancement of the intellectual endeavor 
that is the practice of law.)

Comments please.

 

********************************************
Stuart Levine
Fisher & Winner, LLP
315 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Telephone:             410.385.2000
Telecopier:              443.927.7075
Cellphone:               410.802.5817
Weblog:  http://taxbiz.blogspot.com
http://www.taxation-business.com
[email protected]
*********************************************




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